The Great Worm Lich

Although Zhang Lisheng got his Ph.D. at Stanford, his academic title was entirely based on the knowledge his cruel father forced him to study, coupled with huge donations and good luck. He did not have much experience in the US’ university life, let alone those associations or societies. However, he was more profoundly informed about sorcery.

“Sheila, I don’t know much about other societies, but the Truth Society is not as simple as you think. A few ‘bugs’ tried to show their sorcery in front of me this morning, and they were all members from the Yale’s Truth Society,” the young man shook his head as he replied.

“Sorcery?” Sheila was stunned before continuing in astonishment, “Lisheng, you mean there’s a sorcerer in the Yale Truth Society, and there’s actually more of them? No wonder we had that incident of a big man-eating bug today! Can you tell us the details, please?”

“Of course…” Walking on the crowded campus road, Zhang Lisheng dove into the details of the encounter with Joyes and the few others this morning with no regard for the presence of others. In the end, he added, “Even though the sorcery they mastered was weak, sometimes sorcery is like fine sand mixed in the weights on both ends of a balance. If somebody secretly sneaks in two to three grains of sand on it, it’ll be enough to make the whole balance tilt. For this reason, all of you better be careful when you come across any Truth Society member. Remember to never be alone with them. ”

“Is sorcery so popular now?” Upon hearing the young man’s words, Sheila sighed. “The three of us Harvard Sisters are originally the most innovative figures in this era, but now, we have no choice but to hide in a hole? How sad is this?”

“Sheila, I’m not joking! With no precautions, it’s very dangerous for a mortal to encounter such befuddling sorcery even if the effect is as weak as eating three tablets of hallucinogen drugs,” Zhang Lisheng said solemnly as he looked at the girl’s sad facade.

“Oh, Lisheng, your sense of humor has deteriorated. I know the priorities of the matter so don’t worry. Jokes aside, I’ll make sure I’ll forever put a huge distance when I come across any Truth Society’s member by myself from now on!”

“Well, there’s no need to do that forever, Sheila.” Zhang Lisheng shrugged and said, “I believe I have already safely transplanted the Gold Core fragment. I only need to run a trial now, and if things go successfully, all of you will have eternal life and powerful spell-casting powers in two years’ time. If you’re lucky, you may even get to pick your power attribute! At that time, if you come across those weak spell-casters like those that Tina and I encountered this morning, I believe that you’d be able to kill them like trampling an ant.”

“Oh, are you saying that I will be able to keep my youth forever in two years’ time?” Sheila’s jaw dropped. Unable to suppress the excitement in her heart, she shouted loudly while Tina and Trish, who were feeling slightly awkward between each other, also widened their eyes in astonishment.

“Very good, Sheila! You better tell everybody all over the world about this issue!” Zhang Lisheng glared at Sheila and snapped in a whisper when he saw many people looking at them curiously because of the girl’s shout.

“There’s nothing wrong in telling other people, right, Lisheng? Your newly mastered ability will make you the object vigorously supported by all big-shots all over the world! You’ll have the entire world in your hand and become an uncrowned king!” Amidst the face of the young man’s reprimand, Sheila grinned and said in disagreement. Even so, she lowered her volume down.

Upon hearing the girl’s sophistry, Zhang Lisheng frowned and blurted out, “Uncrowned king? Ha, I need not be an uncrowned king, Sheila! I only want to have a world that I conquered. Only then will I wear the crown and become the true overlord… Anyway, forget about it. Okay, listen to me! If I want to transplant the Gold Core fragment safely—of course, it’d be ideal if I can transplant an entire Gold Core onto the three of you—I must rely on the protector power that can only be given by the most mysterious and powerful gods in the ancient mythology of China. The use of that level of power must be carried out in extremely, exceedingly great caution. There are only four people in the world worthy of me to do so. Other than my mom who will never give up her human identity, all of them are all beside me now…”

The instant his last sentence left his mouth, Sheila immediately hugged him gently. Half-jokingly, she interrupted, “Oh, baby! Even though you sound kinda like a playboy, that is still the most touching sentence I’ve ever heard in my whole life!”

“W-What? Playboy? What playboy?” Dumbfounded, Zhang Lisheng broke free from the girl’s arms and said loudly, “T-This is an equivalent exchange! Equivalent exchange, understand, Sheila? The help that the three of you have given me is worthy for me to take this risk. First, it was Tina who helped me build the factory and showed the way of my witchcraft path… oh, wait, Tina is different. I love her so… Okay, it’s like this, it’s love between Tina and I while it’s friendship between Trish, you and I! Profound friendship and adding on to the fact that you two have helped me a lot…”

“Think about it, Lisheng, Trish and I didn’t help you that much, actually. It’s you who saved our lives several times instead!” Seeing the young man’s incoherent manner, Sheila extended her head and whispered in his ears, “Goodbye, dear Lisheng! Do you really understand how love and friendship are distinguished?”

Zhang Lisheng froze, unable to say anything more. At this time, Tina, who had been silent all this while, finally chimed in, “My dear sister Sheila, can you please stop flirting with my boyfriend in front of me?”

“Aha! The queen has finally spoken! Alright, sister! I’ll return your baby to you now! For the sake of our friendship that is even stronger than love, I won’t say anything anymore from now on, okay?” Sheila chuckled.

“Thank you for your ‘respect’, Sheila! But when it comes to serious matters, we still need advice from the solemn Sheila of whom we first met!” Tina shrugged. “Let’s go back to my room in the castle! The box of Château Lafite-Rothschild wine last time is not even finished yet. There are also many fruits that we bought yesterday in the refrigerator. Let us eat some fruit salad and drink wine while listening to Lisheng talk about his business.”

“Good suggestion, Tina!” Sheila nodded. “I only have one question. You only have one big bed in the castle’s room, so how shall we sleep if we become drunk later?”

“Oh, good question, Sheila!” Tina pondered over it and suddenly hugged her two best friends. “I think I’ll sleep in the middle, Lisheng will sleep on my left while Trish sleeps on my right. you, on the other hand, will sleep in the bathtub. Do you agree with me, Trish?”

“I think it’s a good suggestion!” Trish was stunned for a while before answering dead serious. The strange atmosphere among the three girls immediately disappeared without a trace because of this joke. Zhang Lisheng, who was by the side, could not understand the tacit understanding among the girls, but he could also feel that the surrounding atmosphere had become much more relaxed.

After that, they talked and laughed as they walked back to the stone low-rise building that Tina had spent a lot to enter. When Tina and Trish made a fruit and vegetable salad using pear, apple, sweet pomelo, lettuce mixed with salad dressing and lemon juice, Zhang Lisheng began to talk about his chief legal officer’s wild plan of the ’51st State of the United States’ Plan while enjoying the healthy food.

“Edward said that the chances of success are actually big despite the inconceivable sound of it. What do you think?” After he finished telling them everything, the young man asked.

The three girls sat on the big bed while sharing a salad placed in a huge glass bowl as they became silent for a while. Trish looked down at Zhang Lisheng, who was sitting on the yoga mat beside the bed, and asked, “Lisheng, there’s something I don’t understand. Now that new foreign worlds are constantly appearing, the government would not bother about Shrimp World No. 2 anymore if things are developing in this way. Thus, we can say that this is entering your pocket already. After getting the island, your plan is to use it as a springboard to conquer the whole Shrimp World No. 2, right? Edward and Charlie don’t know about this ‘big plan,’ so they think turning Shrimp B1 Island into a part of the United States will be safer, but what makes you think so as well?”

“Trish, do you still remember our analysis?” Zhang Lisheng shrugged and asked. “According to the Colossal World in ancient mythology, the planet we live in would be divided into a thousand ‘worlds’. The total area of the land and water on Earth is about 510 million square meters, so if we calculate based on this and embed it into 1000 foreign worlds, there will be a total of 1000 blocks with an average area of 510,000 square kilometers each. So far, the block faced by Shrimp World No. 2 is the essential region of human civilization like New York City, Boston, and Philadelphia. Some of the most developed financial streets, university towns, and industrial production bases in the world are all located here, but there’s not enough energy sources, mineral resources, agriculture, and livestock breeding. If this place is isolated and combined with Shrimp B1 Island… Wait, I will have captured the entire Hellfire Archipelago by that time. Well, even if I have yet to capture it all, I will have at least have half of it already…”

“Oh, I understand now, baby. So you’re planning to graft the essential Earth’s civilization to the primitive island in the foreign world!” A pang of realization hit Tina and interrupted her boyfriend’s words.

“Yes, Tina! It’s just too slow conquering the world using steamships and motorboats. I’ll definitely need faster transportation, and I also need more communication tools that can cover a wide area if the territory that I rule gets bigger. For this reason, I need to graft the civilization! Oh, the term ‘graft’ that you used is too accurate! Now tell me, what do you think of my idea?”

“It sounds like an Arabian tale, but when I think about it carefully, it’s possible. Besides, even if you fail, you won’t have much loss anyway, so it’s definitely worth a try!” Sheila became silent for a while and nodded seriously. “What do you think then? Tina? Sheila?”

“I agree with you, Sheila,” Tina replied without hesitation, and Trish’s agreement followed it closely. “Lisheng, just like what Sheila said, this thing is worth a try. You should contact my dad. He should know which big shots in Washington you need to ‘work’ on for you to succeed.”